


The Sentinels

by Ashinami



Category: Guild Wars 2 (Video Game), Guild Wars Series (Video Games)
Genre: Ascalon, Charr (Guild Wars), Charr Legions, Crystal Dragon, Gen, Iron Legion, the brand - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-08 15:49:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16432367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ashinami/pseuds/Ashinami
Summary: A soldier of the Iron Legion is disposed for his duty on the branded territory.





	The Sentinels

**Author's Note:**

> A short thing I had a mood to write. Hope you to enjoy!

The Brand. It spreads through the land like a plague.

I could smell it miles away from where I was, I didn't even have to see it. And the smell was strangely not awful, but wryly sweet and I couldn't believe it was so, when I arrived to the outpost at the edge of the Brand. For a moment I stood there with my warband and for the first time in my life I felt doubt. I stared at the wide crystallized ground, plants were still growing there though they rised unnaturaly tall and they were dangerus, poisonous as one would never expect.

The dragon territory was described differently by everyone, some spoke of it even with fear. But when I saw it with my own very eyes I knew nothing could have prepared me for this sight. The aura of undeniable power was overwhelming. A purple blurr of fog above the land and veil of iron clouds called out to everyone in silent war. It was unconquered, bored into hearts spilling terror - everything that was in the Brand stayed there, changing beyond imagination.

But we are also unconquered. We, the Iron Legion, we do not bend. We stand against everything on our way and crush it with overwhelming power like iron rams. And I will fight against the Brand - for the glory of my Legion. My warband will get rid of the scar the Dragon dared to carve through our lands.

But as the years passed by, I realised there were once many like me. There were many like us. Now, they all faded into the earth.

I am a member of Iron Legion. We pioneer development of charr supremacy. We are the bright future of the Legions. I take pride from dedication to my duty. I take pride from being Legionnaire of my warband whom I chose as my family - my sisters and brothers in arms. Out of them all, I proved to be the strongest, the most steadfast and unbroken - they all follow my command and I showed them that I could make us strong.

We received orders from our Centurion that we are being send to guard the branded territory and we will become Sentinels. In Iron Legion we always say that wheverer our Legion will send us, we will do them proud. And I held this saying close to heart - burned in my soul just like my sense of duty.

My warband read my mind. They backed from nothing and we knew that we will serve the Legion well and we will make use of our swords to fight the dragon minions.

It wasn't until our first clash with them. The dragon minions - that's how everyone referred to them and I never payed attention that no one bothered to describe them. I never thought about this until I had to face them in battle. They were twisted and broken. There was nothing natural in those beasts - some were crystallized to the bone, others were still fresh and sharp purple icicles pierced through muscles, skin slowly ripped off from flesh. Those were the most disgusting abominations that could ever walk on Tyria. Nothing I would have ever imagined, even if I tried.

At night there were creeping shadows lurking around. I couldn't sleep and I knew my warband was restless as well. Screeching and tapping noises, cracking crystals and distant howling. And the Brand called loudly as always, coaxing us and daring to stand against it. We charr never back down from a fight, but on the dragon's territory we had to learn restraint and wait patiently. At the territory of the dragon it was not us provoking clashes - this time we were the ones defending ourselves.

We are the Sentinels, we hold the Brand at bay, preventing it from spreading across Ascalon. Our life is the most dangerous duty that anyone could imagine. The hardest duty withig the Legions. Nothing we asked about ourselves. And in time our verve dimmed out - it was no longer a fight for a Legion, but the fight for our brothers and sisters in arms - the Sentinels. Each day there was one loosing their life. Each day someone was grieving. Each day we saw dragon minions that were once charr.

And the Brand spared no one. I learned it the hard way when it took them away from me, one after the other.

As the time passed by my warband grew shorter. They fell either in battle or disappeared in purple fog and although I searched for them,there were not even tracks on the crystal ground to follow them. I called them loudly, but only silence answered me. Overwhelming silence. It slowly and unrelently closed around me, isolating from the world that I knew. Stay too long in the Brand and it will devourer you - it will lead you astray.

Sometimes I found bodies of the members of my warband, most often those were only limbs, bones or half eaten corpses. But some of my brothers and sisters were taken by this plague and they were not themselves anymore. I saw them wander through the Brand brainless, howling from pain or sadness. I didn't know anymore, I couldn't understand them. Each of them was deformed beyond imagination, some couldn't even properly walk and they crawled on their broken legs. Each of them met a sniper's bullet. I personally made sure of that.

Finally, after years of hard life only I remained of what was once my warband. A commander with no soldiers. With the Sentinels I learned how to grieve and I did grieve after my warband. I learned how to express sadness and I did. Without my warband I was no one. Without my family I was all alone.

There would be others the same as I had been all those years ago. Others who had no imagination what awaited them in the Brand. It was not to be meddled with. It was not something that could be won over.

We are the Sentinels. Our duty is to live long enough so others won't have to experience life at the verge of the Brand.


End file.
